Monday, June 14, 2010

Okay, Okay I Take it Back

Usually this blog is nothing more than a narcisstic rant about my life, but today my friends we turn to the world of (use a deep voice and imagine lights flashing for this next part) Free Product Endorsement! No, I'm not going commercial or adding ads, but someone sent me something for free, so here's a review.

A few posts ago I disparaged a program, Scrapblog.com, that I have been using for about a year and a half because of their high download costs. I first fell in love with Scrapblog when I figured out that posting a lot of pictures in Blogger is a HUGE pain. And they never format correctly. And sometimes they disappear. And unless you know the secret nerd code of HTML and Photoshop they never look good. So Scrapblog solved those problems. Pictures went where I wanted. I could farm ideas from other people's premade layouts (because I am seriously deficient in the ability to create CUTENESS (unless you count my adorable children) that all other women seem to posses). I didn't have to go to a scrapbooking store and try to match papers and buy stickers and letters and flowers and matching ruffles and draperies and metal buckles and eyelets and coordinate them with themes and holidays and anyway, you get the idea. Scrapblog was easy and I could do it cheaply and post it in my blog.

Then one day I decided to see how much it would cost to download my Scrapblog pages so I could print them at Costco or somewhere else that prints things cheaply. Because despite my love of all things electronic, nothing compares to holding physical copies in your hand and leafing through pages. This was when my former loving and happy relationship with Scrapblog took an ugly turn. I even declared my disdain in a blog post, declaring that it was my last time using Scrapblog. Downloading print quality pages was $4 per page. Ouch. I thought I was done with Scrapblog. 

But then, enter amazing customer service. They found my blog post and said they were sorry I felt that way, would I like to try a free premium book printing?  Ummm, yes! Their printing prices are much more reasonable than their download prices. At $9.99 for a 20 page 4x6" book, $14.99 for a 20 page 9"x6" book, or $34.99 for a hardcover 20 page 12"x8" book, they're comparable to other printing services. They offered me a 12"x8" book for free with free shipping! Wowsers! Maybe I should start complaining about other products that I would like for free (Dear Pampers/Ghiradelli Chocolates/Ben and Jerrys, I hate you).   


The resulting book is amazing. And I'm not just saying that because it was free. The printing is high quality, the paper is thick and the binding is surviving my girls who love to look at it.

I love the way it turned out and I take it back--I will be using Scrapblog.com again. Their product is good, and affordable (when printing through them, not downloading), and the customer service is top notch. I have some other book projects planned, a "Who Loves Baby" book and I want to write a book for Hannah. I'll let you know how those turn out. 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've never used scrapblog. I wonder if it works on Wordpress?

For photo books I prefer Shutterfly. They send me coupons for free photo books, free picture printing and discounted collage calendars all the time. I use Shutterfly to make calendars with photos of my kids. I give them away for Christmas to all the grandkids. It's fun stuff.

Okay enough about me. Great post Stephanie!

Anonymous said...

p.s. I meant I give the calendars to the grandparents...not the grandkids. DUH!

Sherrie said...

Oooo. Dangerous that they turned your rant into something that awesome. Way to go!

Anonymous said...

Cute book!! I made the page big and just wanted to turn the page. Good going Stephanie.
G-ma

Emily Widdison said...

k, just got back into town...we were waiting for your baby news! Congrats! She is beautiful just like her sisters. LOVE the name.
Um, but you are crazy. I admire you but I still think anyone who does natural when drugs are available is crazy. But go you!!